Symantec’s LifeLock may be a winner after Equifax hack

Share this:

Symantec’s headquarters in Mountain View. A Credit Suisse analyst says the recent hack at Equifax could lead to more people paying of the identity protection services of LifeLock, which is owned by Symantec.

A Winner From The Hack?: Last week, the revelation about the big hack at Equifax — as many as 143 million Americans had the personal data exposed to hackers — brought up the worst of the worst in people’s minds about what could happen if their Social Security numbers and other private information got into the wrong hands.

Criminals could open bank accounts in your name. You could go to your mailbox and find statements saying you need to pay back lines of credit, or credit cards, in your name. Someone could even take out a driver’s license in your name, steal your tax refund, and maybe even start running up on-demand movie fees through your cable TV provider.

In other words, a data breach could be bad news with bells on for everyone. Except, possibly, security software technology company Symantec, of Mountain View, and its LifeLock security protection business.

You may have seen or heard ads for LifeLock by now. For a monthly subscription fee, LifeLock offers an identity theft protection system designed to detect fraudulent applications for various credit and non-credit services. If something shows up that looks untoward, LifeLock takes steps to notify you and put an end to whatever shouldn’t be on you various accounts, or in your name.

And, according to analyst Brad Zelnick of Credit Suisse, there are pretty good odds that LifeLock, and by extension, Symantec, will see a boost in business in the coming months even though Equifax is offering people affected by the hack 12 months of free identity theft protection (ITP).

However, a breach the size of what happened to Equifax — let that 143 million Americans figure sink in — may be too much for even free ID protection to overcome. Hence, the opportunity for LifeLock to capitalize at Equifax’s expense.

“We expect distrust of Equifax and heightened concern for personal digital safety will lead to increased demand for ITP services, thus benefiting LifeLock,” Zelnick said in a research report.

Zelnick estimates that the benefit to LifeLock could be in the form of as many as 450,000 new customers during the current quarter, which would give LifeLock more than 5 million subscribers for the first time. And that would make LifeLock and Symantec winners as millions of people try to determine what, if anything, they have lost.

Middle Innings:

The Doors Will Just Open: By now, nearly everyone knows that Apple is going to hold an event at its new Apple Park campus in Cupertino. And Apple will be holding that event, specifically, at Apple Park’s new Steve Jobs Theater. Only, Apple will be doing that by the skin of its teeth, as the company got what was, in effect, a last-minute approval by the city of Cupertino to open the doors of the theater, as it wasn’t officially completed by the time Apple planned to use it.

Bottom of the Lineup:

Not The Spanish Inquisition, But Still…: Facebook might not have been expecting a fine equal to $1.4 million from the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), but that’s exactly what Facebook got. The AEPD said Monday it slapped Facebook with that fine because the company allegedly collected data from Spanish citizens with getting their consent, or informing them about what Facebook planned to do with the information it received.

Quote of the Day: “Climbing home prices are forcing more and more borrowers to consider other options, such as leveraging a parent’s credit, in order to qualify to buy.” — Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate.Gardner was speaking about a new report from Attom Data Solutions that said San Jose leads the nation in the number of home loans given to co-borrowers, and the median down payment from borrowers.

Rex Crum is the senior web editor for the business section for The Mercury News and Bay Area News Group. He also writes about business and technology for the publications' print and web editions, and has covered business and technology for nearly two decades. A native of Seattle, he remains a diehard Seahawks and Mariners fan and is imparting his fandom to his Oakland-native wife and two young daughters.